Fox Farm

Emald001

Emald001

I am transplanting my peppers this weekend, I have bought some light rocks to make a base so it does not hold so much water towards the bottom of the pot.  And I will be replenting them in Fox Farm Ocean Forrest.  My question is, Do I need more Vermiculite or is it enought with the amount in it already?  COnsidering the lower layer of rocks, the fox farm.. would it be enough?
 
http://i.imgur.com/CtyhTcz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lNzqgXo.jpg
 
smokemaster said:
Cut a string off a mop and stuff it into the pot through a drain hole with a screwdriver or whatever.
Excess water will get syphoned out by the wick/string.
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Thanks for that nice little tip! I'ma try that some time.
 
I too just potted up my pepper seedlings with ocean forest. My original plan was to cut the OF with perlite at a 5:1 ratio. However the OF had a good amount of perlite in it already, so I just used it full strength. It's been one week, No sign of nutrient burn.
 
I read somewhere that FFOF has about 20% perlite in it.  I went with a ~33% mix with mine so I added 2 cubic feet to 8 bags (12 cubic ft) of FFOF and mixed it all up.  Mixture seems to be doing great though I honestly don't think it made a big difference on how well the plant grows... just means I need to water more often.  One primary factor for me was to stretch out the FFOF by cutting it ever so slightly.  On average, it is $25 per 1.5 cu ft bag here in the Houston (though Houston Discount Hydroponics has it for $17 a bag if you buy a few or more) area so it can get expensive if you use that for 25+ plants in 5, 7, 15, and 20 gallon pots.
 
FWIW, I mixed a small batch of ~60/40 perlite/cheap potting soil for the bottom inch of my plastic containers.  (The rest of the pot gets a mix of OF, compost, ProMix, plain old dirt, and other stuff.) The porous bottom layer seems to work well enough, but I don't have any real point of comparison.
 
OTOH, I have some smaller peppers growing in straight OF without any special drainage precautions, and they just love the stuff.
 
FFOF is good to go right out of the bag as it was made to be well draining. The extra perlite will just have you watering more if they are outside. Now perlite might be a good Idea with the HappyFrog or Canna Terra Soil if you wanted it to retain less water for some reason.
 
 
DLL
 
EliteMcScruffin said:
I read somewhere that FFOF has about 20% perlite in it.  I went with a ~33% mix with mine so I added 2 cubic feet to 8 bags (12 cubic ft) of FFOF and mixed it all up.  Mixture seems to be doing great though I honestly don't think it made a big difference on how well the plant grows... just means I need to water more often.  One primary factor for me was to stretch out the FFOF by cutting it ever so slightly.  On average, it is $25 per 1.5 cu ft bag here in the Houston (though Houston Discount Hydroponics has it for $17 a bag if you buy a few or more) area so it can get expensive if you use that for 25+ plants in 5, 7, 15, and 20 gallon pots.
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OMG $25 a bag, thats highway robbery. its $10 bucks out here. At those rates i would look in to making my own mix.
 
It takes a passionate grower to spend that kinda dough on the peppers. good on ya Scruff.
 
hogleg said:
OMG $25 a bag, thats highway robbery. its $10 bucks out here. At those rates i would look in to making my own mix.
 
It takes a passionate grower to spend that kinda dough on the peppers. good on ya Scruff.
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Yeah it's ridiculous.  I have searched and searched and the best I can find is $17 a bag which is what I went and spent $250+ on a couple months ago.  I have used it in the past and just love it.  That said, some of the garden centers around here have organic soil and everything else I need for about half that which I plan on trying out next year.  Since this is my first year with outside plants, I figured I would be semi-safe and go with something I know.  Nothing quite like a massive failure on your first attempt!  Not sure I'd have it in me to try again if that happened.
 
hogleg said:
OMG $25 a bag, thats highway robbery. its $10 bucks out here. At those rates i would look in to making my own mix.
 
It takes a passionate grower to spend that kinda dough on the peppers. good on ya Scruff.
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Especially when you can make a far better soil yourself. ;)
EliteMcScruffin said:
 
Yeah it's ridiculous.  I have searched and searched and the best I can find is $17 a bag which is what I went and spent $250+ on a couple months ago.  I have used it in the past and just love it.  That said, some of the garden centers around here have organic soil and everything else I need for about half that which I plan on trying out next year.  Since this is my first year with outside plants, I figured I would be semi-safe and go with something I know.  Nothing quite like a massive failure on your first attempt!  Not sure I'd have it in me to try again if that happened.
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Hit me up next season and I'll turn you onto a soil mix that only needs water and nothing else the entire season. :)
 
hogleg said:
OMG $25 a bag, thats highway robbery. its $10 bucks out here. At those rates i would look in to making my own mix.
 
It takes a passionate grower to spend that kinda dough on the peppers. good on ya Scruff.
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thats cause you are closer in Sonoma, I am in Orange County its like 13 bucks here.. 25 is very expensive. 
OK gents, so I know the FFOF is great.. but what about my pea rock base i am doing for the draining.. any ideas/? that good?
 
Emald001 said:
thats cause you are closer in Sonoma, I am in Orange County its like 13 bucks here.. 25 is very expensive. OK gents, so I know the FFOF is great.. but what about my pea rock base i am doing for the draining.. any ideas/? that good?
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Sorry, can get a little off topic from time to time!

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work well but at the same time don't really see a need for it. Raised garden or in the ground it might make a difference, but for containers I don't see it being better or worse either way so long as you have drainage holes in them.
 
Man, I wish I would have known earlier.. my dumb ass went and made extra drainage holes on the containers... when all i needed was good drainage... now i will transplant from miracle gro to Fox Farms... the plants should still be able to give me some fruit right?
 
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